[Mike Cohen]

I run 2.0 on a XP Pro Core 2 Duo Dell with 2 gigs ram and internal 7200rpm 120 gig drive, and external USB SATA drive.

[Mike Cohen]

after a few minutes of experimenting, it seems importing the HDV project into a DV project will simply require the copying and pasting of motion settings to the HDV footage and motion/crop settings to the DV footage. It will probably take a day to conform the HDV project to DV for the final render.

I still would like to hear others’ experiences.

Mike

[Mike Cohen]

It is of course very easy to download YouTube video, of course converting FLV into another editable format will require one of probably a million free or less than free converting apps, easily located on Google.
Or you could use screen capture software, and then just crop out the unneeded part of the screen.
As far as actually using YouTube videos in a derivative project you can ask someone else about copyrights and permissions.

Mike

[Mike Cohen]

I have found the Premiere multi cam feature to be not very good once you have made your cuts, especially how it handles audio.
I prefer to setup my cameras on separate tracks and use motion settings to make a quad view. Then I use the marker tool with a keyboard shortcut to mark my edits, while playing in real time. Then I go to my marks and use the razor tool (ctrl + / is my preferred method), then save a copy of the sequence and tweak the edits. It is a little more time consuming than the multi cam feature but you have more control. But that’s just me.
Mike

[Mike Cohen]

For a client, a video project may be one of dozens of action items in their Outlook or Crackberry to do list. It seems rather important for a few days surrounding the shoot, then you send them the edit, which you rushed to finish, putting other work aside, and they respond with “thanks, will look at this sometime.”

Then months pass – you wonder if they have forgotten about you, but in reality the client has sales meetings, conventions, product development, focus groups, golf outings and their usual day to day business, not to mention if the client is an executive or manager, they spend a lot of each day solving problems for other directs or superiors or other contractors or clients of their.

And then 6 months+ later they call you asking for another DVD, they lost the last one, and no, they have not looked at it yet.

I like to find a 2nd person in the client’s organization who can help move things along. A junior account executive, admin assistant or marketing person who may eventually see the video but probably has never heard of the project before.

Even very large Fortune 500 companies have communication issues, people are kept out of the loop and schedules are busy – thus when a mom and pop or smaller company has the same issues just realize that everyone has the same issues.

Business = Busyness

Then, once you think the project is done, it goes to legal review for another 3 months+ and then you start all over again, like the Bill on Capitol Hill trying to become a Law.

Mike

[Mike Cohen]

We add a project management fee of 25% of the total budget – this covers some overages as well as meetings, phone time and “non-billable” time. Of course if a client is known to be “needy” then raise your PM fee.

Mike

[Mike Cohen]

occasionally I need to explain to clients how a DVD player works – people sometimes expect there to be a Menu button while the video plays. Trying to explain how to access the menu by right clicking the mouse can lead to glazed over eyes.
Many people, apparently, rent a DVD, play the movie and never access the menu.
Joe is correct, and exit button is something you would see in a Flash or Director program, not a video DVD.

Mike

[Mike Cohen]

I always export MPEG-2 out of Premiere, and import the MPEG-2 files with separate audio into Encore.
Cheaper DVD players tend to do weird things, like bypass the main menu and play the timelines one after the other. No client wants to hear they have a cheap anything, but you get what you pay for. Have you experienced this probelm in a latest and greatest DVD player, such as one of the upscaling ones currently being sold?

Could your 24p to 29.97 be an issue? If you are editing in DV, then probably not.
I export MPEG-2 from premiere and set lower field first – if you let Encore transcode who knows what it is doing.
We occasionally have a cusotmer who cannot play one of our DVDs but has no problem with others.
Another tip we find useful is to make an ISO from Encore and burn using Nero, as opposed to letting Encore burn the DVD for you – unrelated to your problem of course but worth mentioning.

[Mike Cohen]

I believe Premiere has a time code filter you can apply to clips, so you see the clip’s timecode as it plays. Find yourself a good transcription service that can either transcribe timecoded video, or simply add a beep at one minute intervals and have the transcriptionist note the beep in the transcript – you can then add the approximate times to your transcript, import to excel or whatever.

I am starting such a project with about 8 hours of interviews and may try this method, and will no doubt blog about it.

As far as making notes within an editing app, if an Avid is not feasible, you might work out a system using text slates, or even screen shots of 1 minute chunks of the transcript imported and superimposed over the video segments, as if you are working with index cards or whatever convention you use on your paper edit.

Here’s another idea. Given the 1 minute chunks of video/transcript – you can easily break up video on a timeline into 1 minute clips, to match the transcript. Then rename the clips with the numbering system.

Then edit your transcript to rough out your desired video edit, maintaining the clip numbering.

Then rearrange the clips on your timeline to match the paper sequence. You will still have to manually view the edit and trim your edits to match the sequence in your script, but it may be a way to eyeball the edit without having to manually find the rough edit points.

Now if only this could be done Minority Report style with a touch screen – the way Lightworks was supposed to revolutionize the computer user interface back in the 80’s.

Let us know what works, and i too will report back with my process.

Mike

[Mike Cohen]

just last week we were on a shoot in a medical office. We turned on a 1K tungsten light, and the circuit for much of the office went out. Why the office had so many plugs on the same breaker is one question, but when the power was restored, we found out a few days later, a computer was damaged “beyond repair.” Our insurance is liable apparently.
Insurance is a must for any business – yes even for independent contractors.
Mike